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Something that I always stress to my clients is the importance of removing outdated, worn or non-neutral carpeting when selling your home.
Many home owners make the mistake of providing for a carpet allowance in their asking price. They believe that the future home owner will want to choose their own carpeting.
There is something to be said for the future home owner having that choice. However, in many cases carpeting can be the deal breaker that will make a potential buyer move on to the next listing.
Many of today’s buyers are looking for move-in ready homes and others may not have additional funds available for the upgrade.
This issue came up close to home recently. We are in the process of preparing a family member’s home for sale. The carpet was in excellent condition; not a wear mark or stain in sight. You couldn’t kill that carpet if you tried. It makes me wonder how the carpets of today will look 40 years from now. Many of them won’t stand up like this if I had to guess.
The only negative about the carpet was the color: orange. While that was the color of the day when it was installed, it’s just not that high up on the carpet color wish list now.
There was hardwood underneath, which was a big bonus, so I went into Home Stager mode and went through my spiel about how it would be best to remove the carpet. I got the usual responses that I receive from other home owners: Is it worth the time, money, etc.?
In this case it would just be time involved (mine) because I’m doing this job pro bono. That aside, there was apprehension about the condition of the wood underneath. No one could recall what shape the floor was in when it was covered up. This was definitely a valid concern, but I explained that even if some repairs were needed to the floor, we’d still be ahead of the game.
That being said, it was left up to me to decide what was best.
I’m sure you can guess what happened next. Leave me in a room with orange carpeting and a carpet knife (I came prepared!) and look out. It was removed that afternoon with the help of hubby and a neighbor. They moved all of the heavy furniture out of my way as necessary.
It’s certainly a doable project, especially if you cut the carpet into manageable pieces and roll and tie them up as you go along. We were done in a couple of hours.
And the best part? The wood underneath was in mint condition. I had very happy “clients” on my hands when I was finished. They couldn’t believe the difference. (Thank goodness or I’d have been in big trouble!)
Not convinced that it’s worth it? Take a look at the before and after pictures of the living room (of course a little staging was done as well).
